Card fraud losses in Northern Ireland have dropped due to new technology used to thwart criminals, it emerged today.
The amount lost was reduced to £700,000 (€1.02 million) last year, down from £800,000 in 2005 and from £1.1 million in the previous year.
UK payments association APACS revealed the new level, the second year running the figure had come down in Northern Ireland.
Andrew Fallis, Head of Card Development at Northern Bank, attributed the success to the chip and pin system used to protect credit cards. Despite the progress, Mr Fallis warned banks, police and customers against complacency.
"The introduction of chip and pin has certainly made it more difficult for fraudsters to commit card fraud in the UK," he added. "However, criminals are still targeting cards with the aim of copying the magnetic stripe data.
"They use this data to create counterfeit magnetic stripe cards that can potentially be used in countries that haven't upgraded to chip and pin. This has caused an increase in fraud abroad over the last 12 months.
"It's always a battle to keep ahead of fraudsters, and this is the area where we need to be most vigilant.
"Whilst the overall trend is down, and this is reassuring, we are seeing evidence of fraudsters concentrating their efforts on transactions that do not require chip and pin — over the internet and by mail order for example."